> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.helix.ax/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Evidence and abstention

> How Helix keeps uncertainty explicit instead of hiding it behind a score.

Helix separates evidence from the final decision. Labels, reason codes,
confounder signals, context, exposure state, validator signals, and uncertainty
signals can all contribute to a decision without becoming the decision
themselves.

## Confounders are first-class

Many enterprise artifacts look sensitive but are not: tracking IDs, telemetry,
GUIDs, hashes, placeholders, masked values, and test fixtures. Helix treats
these convincing negatives as first-class evidence rather than edge cases.

## Uncertainty is structured

Uncertainty is not a single softmax score. Helix treats predictive confidence,
disagreement, novelty, validator conflicts, and surface-quality degradation as
separate signals.

## Abstention is a product behavior

A high-trust system must be allowed to say that it does not have enough evidence
to decide. `abstain` is not a weak form of `suppress`; it is a separate outcome
that routes the case into review rather than letting the system bluff.